The present invention relates to flow-reducing devices, and particularly to drip emitters useful for trickle or drip irrigation.
Trickle or drip irrigation is increasingly gaining wide-spread use as a means for supplying water, and sometimes fertilizer and other soil additives, to field crops and orchards. In some known devices, the dribble or trickle flow of the water is effected by small openings, but these devices have the disadvantage that they easily clog. In other devices, a long-circuitous path, sometimes called a labyrinth or maze, is provided for the water so that it eventually discharges in the form of a slow trickle. The known devices of this type, however, are generally large and expensive, and/or are difficult to clean and maintain because of the long circuitous path that must be provided.
My prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,587 describes a new form of flow-reducing device having advantages in the above respects.
In addition, drip emitters disposed along a water supply line usually produce non-uniform outputs because of pressure drops along the length of the line, fluctuations in the line pressure, and/or different elevations at which the emitters are located. This is highly undesirable, and a number of arrangements have been proposed to correct it, but the known arrangements have not proved entirely satisfactory from the cost and operational standpoint.